A plane hired to fly a banner above St James’ Park was not intended to interrupt the 17th minute tribute to Toon fans killed on flight MH17.

The timing of the stunt, funded by Sunderland fans which saw the banner ‘5 in a row 5underland’ loop over the stadium five times, has attracted criticism.

On Twitter Newcastle United fans hit out at the decision to fly the plane around the ground as supporters staged the minute’s tribute to John Alder and Liam Sweeney.

But today Alan Elliott, who runs air-ads.com, the company behind the famous ‘Wrong one - Moyes Out’ banner which flew over Old Trafford, apologised if the stunt had upset fans and said it wasn’t intentional.

The plane had been scheduled to circle the ground around 10 minutes later but because of low cloud and wind it took place earlier than expected.

Mr Elliott said: “The first thing I would say is we are pilots ourselves and we feel more strongly about MH17 than any football fan.

“We would not want to upset any tribute. The flight was scheduled to arrive at St James’ Park at 4.30pm but because of conditions on the day it didn’t.

“We were originally meant to route through Sunderland which would have meant the flight would have been 10 minutes later across Newcastle but because of low cloud we couldn’t get there.

“We knew nothing about the tribute.”

It is believed a group of around 200 Black Cats fans clubbed together to raise around £1,000 to hire the light aircraft.

Attached to it was a banner which read ‘5 In A Row’ - detailing the Black Cats’ run of recent derby wins - as some Sunderland fans, despite relegation worries, revealed themselves still to be on cloud nine after their 1-0 win against Newcastle earlier this month.

Mr Elliott said he could only apologise if the timing of the message caused anyone any offence.

He added: “The timing was unfortunate but we didn’t know anything about the tribute.

“We can only apologise. It wasn’t international to fly over then.”

Barry Sweeney at West Road Crematorium with his son Liams' headstone donated by Joseph Richmond & Sons Memorials

Liam Sweeney’s dad Barry said he believed the timing of the plane wouldn’t have been intentional by Sunderland fans.

The 52-year-old, who was at the game on Sunday, said: “I don’t think Sunderland fans would have intentionally instructed the plane to fly over during the 17th minute because of everything they did in the wake of the tragedy.

“The fans showed a sense of unity following the crash and I think that people have maybe taken things out of proportion.

“If the company behind the plane are saying it wasn’t meant to fly over around that time, I believe them.”

The pilot set off from Blackpool and arrived at Shotton Airfield near Peterlee in County Durham at 2.30pm. It then set off again for an hour and a half sky based mission to wind up NUFC fans.

Alan said hiring planes with banners can be costly and the banner would have set Sunderland fans back a considerable amount.

He said: “It’s a significant amount of money, it’s not cheap to do.

“Who’s behind it is all over the fans forums. I just got the request by email and that was it.”